Author: MEDDY MULISA
AfricaPress-Tanzania: MINISTER fro Agriculture Japhet Hasunga has given three days to Karagwe District Cooperative Union (KDCU) to pay 7.8bn/- to coffee farmers in Karagwe and Kyerwa districts.
Mr Hasunga issued the directive at Kyerwa District Council on Thursday where he also gave two weeks to the Cooperative Audit and Supervision Corporation (Coasco) to complete Union accounts.
“Coffee farmers under KDCU in Karagwe and Kyerwa districts should be paid 7.8bn/- between Friday and Sunday. Coasco should complete the Union accounts in two weeks. Farmers who collected their coffee through cooperative unions in Kagera Region will start getting their money today.”
During the current crop buying season which started in June this year, 32bn/- had already been paid to the farmers being payment for 62,336 tonnes of cherry coffee and 31,168 tonnes of clean coffee collected by unions and primary cooperative societies.
“Apart from paying 32bn/- KDCU still has an outstanding debt of 12bn/-. The union should pay the initial 7bn/- starting tomorrow, while 5bn/- will be cleared next week,” he said.
He noted that the payment was a result of increased coffee collection by KDCU following a bumper harvest of the crop in Karagwe District.
Data reveals that the union collects coffee worth 1.7bn/- from farmers and to date it had collected about 37.3kg million while the target was to collect 45kg million this season.
The minister explained that Kagera Cooperative Union (KCU), on the other hand, was owed 7.1bn/- by farmers.
The union should pay initial 2bn/- starting tomorrow while efforts continue to collect money from those who took coffee on credit.
“The union will start disbursing 2bn/- this week, while 3bn/- will be paid by a private buyer soon,” he said.
Mr Hasunga noted that the government was committed to ensuring farmers in the country were paid their money, noting that the system used by Cooperative Unions and Agricultural Marketing Cooperative Societies (Amcos) was guaranteed and appealed to farmers to be patient as foreign private buyers had shown interest in buying Tanzanian coffee after the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The unions delayed selling coffee and this resulted in delays in paying the farmers. However, the government is ready to bail out the unions through the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) that will issue loans to the unions to pay the farmers,” he said.
